by Lucas, Naomi
“Where are our brothers?” Astegur asked suddenly.
Vedikus snorted. “I could ask the same of you.”
“You do not know?”
“Several weeks ago, when I arrived here with Aldora, only Dezetus was here to allow us entrance. Alone. Hinekur and Thyrius were missing, with naught left but hoof prints heading down the mountain.”
Calavia thought back to the five shadowy minotaurs who had appeared before her. She knew two of them now, although one of those two did not want to know her back, but she recalled the other three. All five brothers had been alive and well then…but now? Her eyes flicked between the minotaurs, finally landing on Astegur.
“And Dezetus?” he asked.
“When they did not return, he left to go find them.”
Astegur lowered his head, his horns pointing at the fire, and rubbed his brow. “The centaurs have captured one of them.”
Vedikus surged to his hooves. Calavia startled back and looked at Aldora for reassurance. She continued preparing dinner, but had a look of strain on her face. Calavia knew it mirrored her own.
Calavia turned to Astegur. “I did not know.”
Vedikus jabbed a finger toward her. “You’re a devious mist witch! Of course you knew!”
Astegur slammed his right fist into the ground then breathed a lick a fire into the air. They all stopped and looked at him as he spoke. He told them of all that had happened, including everything before he arrived at Prayer, and what he had found out in the season he traveled and roamed the lands to the south along the walls.
He produced several vials, not of her own making, and passed them to Vedikus.
“Orc and human blood,” Vedikus muttered as he lowered the vial. “And you found these on a hobgoblin?”
“I found many more than that.”
“Where are the rest?”
Calavia tilted her head. “There’s a tribe of nomadic orcs that live in the barrier lands around where Astegur was. I have seen them in my—” she swallowed, “—wax. They are the current rulers of the sacrificial zone there.”
Astegur added, “I drank them. But this is not all. The Enios centaurs have lost their sacrificial zone to the south, a place called Burlox.”
“Burlox?” Aldora asked suddenly, joining the conversation. “It fell before I was thrown over the wall. The Laslites…they were in Thetras for that very reason. The world borders of Savadon are being patrolled again. The capitol…” She looked at Vedikus with wide eyes.
“What about the capitol?” Astegur probed.
“There were rumors that they were delivering prisoners to the border towns to be sacrificed.”
“Are your people afraid?”
Aldora sat back and Calavia scrutinized the human woman. Calavia had lied to her when they first met, and had used those lies to intimidate the woman into doing what she had wanted. A twinge of guilt constricted her throat. She’d never encountered another living human in all her time in Prayer besides her mother.
But Aldora did not shy away from Astegur’s or Vedikus’s gaze, something Calavia herself had almost done now on several occasions. Her curiosity about her kind grew.
“Yes,” Aldora said after a moment, “very afraid.”
Astegur turned back to Vedikus. “The centaurs are heading north for Thetras now that their sacrificial zone is gone. The orcs are aligning with the goblins to keep what is currently theirs. The centaurs hate the orcs as much as we do.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“That we find our brothers and make a move.”
Vedikus sat back down heavily, his gaze moving to the fire, to Aldora’s hands preparing the food. “Dezetus left a week ago to find them and has not returned… Hinekur and Thyrius could be anywhere if they even still live. You know how distracted Thyrius can be, and how one-sighted Hinekur is when he is on a hunt.” His eyes briefly left Aldora to glance at Calavia before he quickly moved them away to look at the fire. “We cannot leave our females unprotected to retrieve them. And if the centaurs do have one of ours…”
“It would be dangerous,” Astegur finished, now looking at the fire himself.
They sat in silence for a while, and Calavia thought of the best way they could solve their predicament. She neither wanted to leave Bathyr so soon now that she was here, and she did not want Astegur to leave her sight. But her wants were not what the clan needed—a clan she was now part of—and so she returned her attention to Aldora. The human female’s brow was furrowed, and a thoughtful expression clouded her face.
She will not like being away from her mate either…
Eventually, Astegur opened the small bag at his hooves and reached his hand into it. Calavia’s heart beat wildly when he produced a small ball of her wax. He met her eyes and placed it in the bowl below it, handing it over to her. He gave her the dagger next.
Calavia’s hand shook as she picked up the clump, caressing its smooth sides with the pads of her fingers. They warmed with the touch, tingling. It was more than she thought she had left. She brought the wax to her face and rubbed her cheek against it.
Everyone was watching her when she lowered it back into the bowl.
“We are not entirely without direction,” Astegur said, turning to the group. “We can find one of our brothers with Calavia’s help.”
Vedikus snarled. “Help? From her?”
Calavia stared at her most prized possession longingly. Astegur was going to ask her to use it. She straightened her back and caressed the clump once more, forced to say farewell mere minutes after the gift was given.
“She’s helped us. We sought her out, and she helped us even though her life was in jeopardy in doing so.” Aldora’s voice hardened as she addressed her mate. “She lost her home because of us and has not given us a reason to strike her down. I do not know Astegur as well as Dezetus, but I feel his sentiments are sincere. He has brought her here and has not looked upon me once in disdain, as you, Vedikus, are doing now to Calavia. As Dezetus did to me.”
Vedikus’s eyes flared dark and bright, glinting with fire.
“Will you do it?” Astegur lowered his voice and turned to her.
Calavia nodded. “Yes.” She prepared the wax, loosening it with her hands, drawing upon her wants and focusing them on the task at hand. Her willpower bloomed within her. “Who do you seek? I only have enough here to find one.”
“Dezetus,” both brothers said at once.
“He is the one with the broken horn, correct?”
Vedikus growled. “How do you know that?”
“That is Dezetus,” Astegur answered, eyeing her curiously.
“I saw his image briefly when I summoned Astegur to my aid,” she said, turning her hand, palm up, and raising the dagger.
Vedikus made another deep noise of discontent.
“Let her work, brother. We only have one chance at this.”
Calavia sucked her lower lip into her mouth and cut her palm.
Epilogue
The next morning, after Astegur checked Calavia’s bandaged hand, he led her up the endless stone steps carved out by her humans countless years before. The air thinned with their ascent, and he slowed so Calavia could take her time.
He felt guilt for the first time last night, giving her a gift, only to immediately take it away.
The previous evening sat hard in his skull. She had produced a weak image of Dezetus, walking through a forest. It made no sense to either him or Vedikus; the only forests near their mountains were west toward the deadlands, where their old tribe still roamed, and north where the swamps ended.
Not one of them could decide which forest it was. He and Vedikus had not traveled through the northern one, and it made no sense for Dezetus to be going farther into the deadlands unless Hinekur or Thyrius had gone out that way. It wasn’t enough information for either one of them to set off after him. Not with two females to protect.
But knowing Dezetus was not captured by the Enios centaurs was a relief, albeit
a small one. He was the strongest of all the brothers, and to have him captured by a weaker enemy…
Astegur snorted under his breath. Dezetus will return. Nothing could kill the eldest of the Bathyr, not even the gods themselves.
His thoughts returned to Calavia as he watched her slide her fingers over the mountain wall they followed along, as if she could not get enough of its touch. He only wanted her to touch him like that. He did not stop her though, since leaving the dead swamps of Prayer, he had never seen such looks of wonder and fear upon her face.
Wonder for seeing more of a terrible, cursed world, in its unique element, and fear for what that new world could do to her.
“I have much to teach you,” he said, his voice low as they continued to climb.
Tonight, he would pet her to sleep, covered in his furs, with a fire to warm her through the darkest hours. He would guard her rest while he made coverings for her soft feet.
A gasp, a bright ray of sunlight, and a strange otherworldly heat flushed his skin when they turned the final corner to the overlook. Calavia rushed away from him and toward the ledge as his face lifted to the sky.
It has been too long.
He loved the way the sun felt on his skin. He found a comforting, almost tangible bliss when a ray of light pierced through the mist. I missed this. Astegur opened his eyes to find Calavia doing the same, her arms stretched out low at her sides. Her long, dark hair fluttered around her small frame, offsetting the pale glow of her skin. His mouth watered as glee filled his hearts. It constricted his throat, being privy to such beauty, being able to witness Calavia experience another first.
The clouds shifted overhead as he took in the sight, and the rays of light vanished. Calavia whined and lowered to her knees, her face still tilted toward the sky. He dropped down beside her.
“Will it come back?” she asked, her voice filled with sorrow and awe.
“Yes.”
They sat in silence as the sun came and went, the glows of yellows and golds, hazy as it bled through the mist that had traveled to cover the peaks of the world. And the sun did come back, now and again, to brighten their eyes, and warm them again, but it never lasted. It never stayed. But those glimpses meant more to Calavia than he ever expected.
Tears sprang to her eyes each time the brilliant glow returned. They sat there waiting for it all day.
But as the day began to fade and the large orb of the moon rose to pierce the gloom and take down the sun, Calavia finally spoke.
“My mother got to see the sun every day of her life before the labyrinth wall moved.”
“There are storms and clouds in the sky as well. She may have not seen the sun every day,” he said.
“Yes, but there was always a possibility that the sky would clear.”
Astegur grunted. “That possibility exists today.”
Calavia twisted to look at him. “You mean right here? On this very peak? Do you think there are taller mountains that rise above the clouds?”
“I mean humans. Humans expel the curse. One day, my brothers will all have mates, and they will have children, and this peak will be vanquished of the curse.”
“Is that your goal? To return the light?”
“It is one of our goals.” He caught a strand of her hair when her head lowered. “But not our main one.”
She canted her head away from him, catching his eyes again with hooded lids. She swept her hand across the view. “You plan to conquer the land.”
“From here to the sacrificial zone straight across. Days to the east. We plan to be the ruling tribe of this land and control the sacrifices given here.”
“Much like the centaurs south along Enios coast.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“You will need an army for that.”
“Or just the deaths of a few key tribal leaders and warchiefs.”
“No, you will need an army.” She rose to her feet, placing her hand on his shoulder to help balance herself.
He joined her and pulled her cape tightly closed around her shoulders, retying its strings. “Perhaps you are right.”
“I may not be able to give you the sons you seek—”
“Calavia,” Astegur growled.
“Let me finish.” She pulled out of his grip and began to descend the mountain.
He stalked behind her.
“I no longer have the ability to give you strength physically. My humanity is gone and that was the only thing that could return the sunlight to your lands.” Calavia raised her hand when Astegur growled again. “We still don’t know all that has been sacrificed on my behalf.” She placed her hand lightly on her belly, over the scar left by her mother.
He could not look at her shadowed face without knowing exactly what such a wound might mean. “What are you getting at?”
“I can help in the war to come.”
At first, he did not like her words, but as he thought them over, he considered them. She was untried in many ways, and if she had really taken all of her mother’s magic, her power could be great—vast, devastating. He thought of the small clump of wax he still had at his side and wondered if she would need more to test out her skills. She may not need it at all.
He looked at her, walking steadily before him, her hand back on the jagged mountain wall as she carefully made her descent. She was smaller than him, weaker than him, but her willpower matched his own. Pride and something akin to feverish obsession bloomed in his head.
Perhaps she has cast a spell over me. His lips twisted up into a smile. If she had, he no longer cared.
He was going to keep her, breed her, and if anything stood in their path, they would fell it together. He believed, as his eyes roamed over her again—her frame hidden by the cloak she wore—that they would continue to sacrifice together until they got everything they wanted.
“We will need your help,” he finally said as the central fire they had sat around the night before came into view. “One of my brothers remains in enemy hands, and we must go back to Prayer and retrieve the weapons and stores that remain there before scavengers find it.”
Calavia stopped and looked over her shoulder at him, and once again, even in the growing darkness, her gaze captured him. Such a frail thing…
Such a powerful mystery.
He was eager to unveil them all, flesh upon flesh, blood within blood, rituals, wars, and spells, all with her, by her side, while she stood by his. Obsession swelled his cock.
“Yes.” She nodded and turned back around. “I look forward to it, minotaur. I look forward to winning this war.”
Astegur stood where she left him, watching her make the rest of the short descent alone, continuing to plan their future. She walked straight for the bonfire that Vedikus and his human, Aldora, coaxed to wild life again.
And as the evening fell the rest of the way into night, and the mist began to haze his view of his family below, the fingers of his left hand twitched and moved at his side. Yes. He had earned himself a prize worth keeping.
A female he didn’t deserve.
Come to me.
His smile grew, and he went.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Minotaur: Prayer, The Bestial Tribe book 2. If you liked the story or have a comment, please leave a review! I love hearing from fans and readers.
What’s next on my plate, you ask? The seventh book in Cyborg Shifters, the third book for the Bestial Tribe, and maybe a standalone I’ve been putting off for years.
If you love cyborgs, aliens, anti-heroes, and adventure, follow me on facebook or through my blog online for information on new releases and updates.
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Naomi Lucas
Also by Naomi Lucas
Stranded in the Stars
Last Call
Collector of Souls
Star Navigator
Cyborg Shifters
Wild Blood
Storm Surge
Shark Bite
Mutt
Ashes and Metal
Chaos Croc
Valos of Sonhadra
Radiant
The Bestial Tribe
Minotaur: Blooded
Minotaur: Prayer